What I Learned About Making My Kids’ School More Environmentally Sustainable

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

What I Learned About Making My Kids' School More Environmental; photo of kids standing in front of a desk with a teacher behind the desk and a paper-mache dragon behind her

“31 students, that’s pretty good, considering the weather!” I breathed a sigh of relief looking at the sign-in sheet for our school’s first Bike to School Day. It wasn’t torrential rain, but I was worried that even the gray drizzle would be enough to warn people off. But we had a full bike rack and a number of happy kids with Safe Routes to School goodie bags.

The event was a result of a few months of direct work, but even more organizing time before that. This was the first year I had truly been involved in organizing at my kids’ school. Even though I wrote in my book about how to make your kids’ school more environmentally friendly, it was all based on expert interviews, not personal experience.

In working with our school and school district this year, I learned quite a few things first-hand about general advocacy in schools and bike advocacy specifically.

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How My Kids and I Connected Over Video Game Music

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

How My Kids and I Connected Over Video Game Music; logo of the 8-Bit Big Band, which is written in retro video-game font with controller icons on the sides

My kids love video games. Really, really love them. In particular, my older son is intensely into Mario Bros games. Classic, new – if it’s Mario, he loves it.

I like video games. I enjoy them and was hard-core into a couple of computer games as a kid, but I’d usually prefer to read a book or watch a movie.

But one thing my kids and I all have in common is a love of music. In fact, a need for music. None of us do well with silence. If things are too quiet, the kids will drive each other (and me) to despair by competing to make noises or sing loudly.

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The Challenges and Necessity of Positive Parenting

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

The Challenges and Necessity of Positive Parenting; photo of a man in a red winter coat next to a kid with a blue winter coat and hat standing next to a stream with a small waterfall with bare trees in the background

Positive parenting – or gentle parenting or conscious parenting – is hard.

It’s hard being patient and kind and demonstrating good listening skills. It’s hard relating to these little people who have such different perspectives as us but also remind us of the characteristics that we ourselves struggle with the most. It’s hard having positive healthy relationships with the people you love the most that you’re also responsible for guiding towards adulthood. It’s hard when you have to push back against what so much of society labels as “good kids” or “good parenting.” It’s hard when the world takes so much out of us and leaves so little left for our children.

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How Square Dancing, Peanut Butter, and Tea Helped Me Talk to My Kids About Anti-Semitism and Racism

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How Square Dancing, Peanut Butter, and Tea Helped Me Talk to My Kids about Anti-Semitism and Racism; a photo of a can of peanut butter and a box of tea

I started telling my husband something, but like always, my kids were listening. My kids are always listening, unless it involves something we need them to do.

I was telling my husband about how I had answered a question on Facebook – one that the original poster probably meant as a hypothetical. I said, “So they asked, ‘Why did we all have to learn square dancing?’ It was probably meant as a joke, but I replied – in all seriousness – “Because of racism and anti-Semitism.”

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What Our Rabbit Reminded Me About Connection

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

Photo of a white rabbit with brown spots sitting on a blue couch arm; text: What our rabbit reminded me about connection

I felt a nipping at my jeans and looked down. “Hey, stop that!” I chided our pet rabbit Hoppity. I frowned. “You have plenty of hay, water…do you want attention?” Softening, I sat down criss-cross on my son’s floor. The bunny hopped over and started licking my jeans. I petted him, running my hand over his soft ears and back. He hopped onto my leg and started licking my other one. I smiled, realizing that this is the first time he had hopped into my lap that didn’t involve food.

What was first a moment of annoyance turned into a moment of connection.

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The Blurred Clarity of Memory

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Photo of two children and a woman in hiking clothes hiking down a trail covered in leaves; text: The Blurred Clarity of Memory

“First we took the orange trail and then red and we came down the green,” my older son said from the backseat of the car. I stared at the phone in my hand, where I had pulled up a map of hiking trails. No, he couldn’t have remembered it that clearly. We hiked it two years ago. This is a kid who forgets things minutes after I say them. I looked again. He was right – that was exactly what we had done.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said.

Memory makes things strange.

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On Flowers and Children and Unplanned Beauty

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Photo of a bumblebee on a marigold flower; On Flowers and Children and Unexpected Beauty

A small brown haired head with flecks of blond leans down. My son’s nose is almost touching a bright orange flower, its torn pedals sprouting from a huge green stem. In the middle of the flower, there’s a fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee butt sticking out. It has its whole face immersed in the flower, guzzling down nectar. My son watches it in wonder, occasionally speaking to it.

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Talking to Kids About Labor Rights

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Cover of the children's book Click Clack Moo Cows Who Type with a cartoon of three cows and a chicken at a typewriter and the text below "Talking to Kids About Labor Rights"

“And make sure not to get Kelloggs,” I commented to my husband as we were putting together the grocery list.

“Why not Kellogg’s?” my older son said, looking up from his book.

“Well, the people who work for Kelloggs are on strike. That means they aren’t working because they want better work conditions, like better pay. Remember in Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type?” I explained, referencing a hilarious children’s book. In it, the cows and chickens go on strike and refuse to give the farmer eggs and milk until he gives them electric blankets. They use an old typewriter to express their concerns. We’ve read it a bunch of times.

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If You Have a Rabbit

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Photo of a white rabbit with brown spots around its eyes and nose on a hardwood floor; text: If You Have a Rabbit

If you give a mouse a place to live (not on purpose), you may not be able to catch them.

If you have a mouse that you cannot catch, then they may try to hide under the dishwasher.

If they hide under the dishwasher, you may try to set a trap there to catch them.

If you set a trap there to catch them, you will have to pull out the dishwasher to check on the trap.

If you have the dishwasher pulled out to check on the trap, your rabbit may try to go under the dishwasher.

If your rabbit goes under the dishwasher, they will definitely chew on the cords under the dishwasher and get nearly electrocuted. (And get you nearly electrocuted trying to get them out.)

If your rabbit chews on the cords, you will need to call an appliance repair person.

So that’s why we’re still waiting on the dishwasher repair person to get in a part.